Live Sound Focus Week, Day 4.

23/02/17

We were faced with a different kind of challenge today by people not turning up, we were lacking in numbers. It's quite difficult to set up both ends of the system with only three pairs of hands rather than five, because of this we took longer than we should. In a way it was good to have less people in the group because it meant that those that did attend; myself, Adam and Rob could learn more within the lesson by rotating setting up channels faster so we all had more chance to work on the desk. Despite having less crew it was still a productive session and I think Andy was quite proud of us all for becoming more comfortable with the desk and getting quicker at setting up the channels. We weren't all that much faster than yesterday because of the same reason I've already mentioned, but we still managed to get everything sounding pretty great.

Andy also took it in turns with us to go through the signal flow of the whole system so that he knew we understood everything. I was quite impressed myself by not needing too many hints and getting through it quite quickly compared to the others, if not the fastest.

It was a level 1 band that came in to soundcheck for us today and they really are so talented, I'm quite proud of them for getting though the competition the other evening too!

As One Project Finishes, Another One Starts...

Everything seems to be rushing along at the moment and it is becoming harder to fit in little things that are not relevant to college at all. I don't have much spare time with the level of involvement I've induced onto myself with the other students. Today, we recorded the final performance of a fifteen minute piece composed by BA student, Emma Cochrane after a quick refresher to remind us of the structure, tempos and it's changes. This is the second time we've recorded it officially as a performance because the last time we played it way too fast, over two extra practice sessions we managed to nail it (pretty much) after replacing the keyboard player for Nick and sacking the bassist and replacing him for acoustic guitarist, Kirsty.

It was great to get to work with those two professionally and use the practice rooms for a different means other than band rehearsals. It has been a pleasure to work with Emma too and offer my support to a higher levelled course for a change and in-effect stepping up. For Emma to teach me her composition, it has not only took my ability to read music and knowledge of music theory, but a great deal of communication and directing which is what her assignment is all about, allowing me a sneak peak of what's to come in a couple of years time. I don't think it would be as easy to view these kinds of skills had the composition been as short as the average pop song.

Now this has come to an end, it is now time to help the level 3's with there genre assignment. I think only have to learn four songs with them, they just have to be completely different and totally obvious that they belong to different genres and from what I understand we don't have all that many practice sessions to get these songs ready. First practice is tomorrow morning bright and early and we will be focusing on some jazzy stuff. After I will be practicing with the level 1 band and hopefully I can motivate them to run through the whole of their setlist. It's not long until their big gig now in the CCT, that happens in the evening of March 7th - The same day I have my Live Sound Assessment in the morning!

Live Sound Focus Week, Day 3.

22/02/17

We were considerably slower setting up this morning after swapping around which end of the PA we were going to set up. It was only my second time setting up the front of house, I understood most of it, but some of it is still confusing me. Andy had to re-explain the signal flow to all of us and the difference between sends and inserts which is slowly starting to sink in and make more sense.

I feel like I'm fairly confident using the desk now, at least to get the levels in. That all changed once we started to work with the band. It was a completely new experience rather than just setting up getting levels and to then pack down and I wasn't comfortable with it at all. We had to all go on stage to check the stage volume on stage was balanced, but because Andy was trying to show us all at the same time, all of us going on stage at the same time was a bit awkward and it felt like we were just getting in the way of the band. The stage in The Venue isn't massive. It wasn't like it was an actual gig, but it just didn't feel right. In the end, we agreed that we managed to get the band sounding alright and that we might have paid to watch the performance - had it been a real gig.

Live Sound Focus Week, Day 2.

21/02/17

We set up much faster today. Unbelievably fast compared to yesterday, but again we didn't have to mic everything up which is always an advantage. At first, I was working on setting up the amps and monitor rig since that was what I've been focusing on and was told it would be best to work on what I'm already starting to get familiar with. Three of us managed to set it up within about 15 minutes while the other two fifths of our small group set up front of house, so the mixer, crossover and effects unit. It was much more fast paced today because most of what we had to do was still in our heads from yesterday.

We did have a few distractions today, with a TV crew starting to set up during the morning (our session runs 10am-1pm) and once they left, they had paused the video play back from when they recorded the live Youtube broadcast on a frame with me in it, projected on to the wall which was just funny. Both days Andy has gone over the signal flow with us and it is starting to become much clearer now, not only just the chain, but how each piece of equipment works and what it does. Also, we got a little further today and managed to get the levels for all of the back line, so the bass, guitar and keyboard. That was the first time any of us had ever done that and I thought it went quite well. Andy still had to help us out with what to find in the EQ to either boost or cut, but like I said it was only our first attempt.

Hopefully tomorrow morning we will be rotating and I will be setting up front of house, so that I can start to further my understanding of the signal flow that end by physically connecting it together.

21/02/17

Just witnessed an amazing thing on my way to college.

As I walked up to the double zebra crossings by the roundabout, I noticed the car approaching had it's hazard lights on and was being followed by a black Mercedes and a horse-drawn carriage transporting a coffin. I decided to stand back from the crossing so that they knew I wouldn't try to crossover and so that they could all stay together out of respect, the woman on the other side of the road did just the same. The carriage was followed by around ten silver Rolls-Royce and every driver let them stick together going over the two roundabouts, leaving them in line. Once they had all passed, everything went back to normal. I stopped the traffic and crossed over. It's things like this that make you stop and think for a moment just how precious everyone and everything is.

Live Sound Focus Week. Day 1.

20/01/17

Today went pretty well to say it was a bit of a slow start having to get used to rigging up the PA all over again, but we still managed to set up fairly quickly and I surprised myself with how much I could remember. My understanding of the signal flow is still a little hazy, but I think once Andy has repeated it enough times it will be well and truly drilled into my head. The drum kit and back line were already mic'd up for us in prep for a competition happening tomorrow so all we had to do was get the levels on the mixing desk and set up the effects, compressors and gates where needed. We ended up running over by about half an hour which was needed to finish off getting the levels for the drum kit. Andy wanted us to at least get that far so we had made progress from our last session and so that we can have more practice setting up the different channels.

Half-Term

I've been working on a lot of assignments recently as the deadlines are starting to become more apparent, but I've been finding it difficult to concentrate at home. I went into college yesterday and I'm here again today to try and get some work done, but if I'm honest I haven't been as productive as I planned. I have got some work done, mind. I have made a great start on my Music Industry assignment for my tutor, Matt and I am now 600 word into the word count of about 1800. I'm all caught up with my recording journal and today I've managed to produce a plan and start researching for my Live Sound assignment.

It's hard to believe that I am "off" Uni this week, as I've been there so much regardless. I don't resent the place because of this, mind. I quite enjoy being here. I had a thought this morning of, "What am I going to do when Clarendon actually closes it's doors for the holidays or longer and I can no longer just walk in to do work, or even when I leave?". I was even in college Tuesday and Wednesday this week to start finalising my sequencing project that is also due in soon. I'm glad it's at about the right length now.

With all this stress that comes naturally with mounds of assignments, I figured that the best thing for me to do that night was to escape it and do something that I haven't done in a while.I decided to go for an evening walk. It was very dark and mildly cold, but the solitude was very satisfying, also to get away from home life and walk the canal toe path brought me back to the feel of the surounding nature. I used to do this all of the time growing up, I never really had many friends, but I would always go out for an adventure and I really didn't like staying in. It's a surprise that I ever managed to learn an instrument with the amount of time I spent outside. No, it was really nice, I took my iPod with me and shuffled along, the whole walk took me about an hour and a half just walking in a bit of a circle. I followed my end of the canal path, through Gallows Field, over the train bridge following the public toepath heading in the direction of Awsworth, but then following another path leading of that after some time back to a further part of the canal, to then walk that part of the canal, back home, but then joining back to the roadway.

I could feel my legs starting ache as I got closer to home during the last stretch, that's truely when you you've had a good walk, that and when your back starts to ache too - which mine did. I felt revitalised afterwards and fully recharged, I just now need to resurface my motivation and continue as I did in January, to conquer this monster workload and survive the mammoth month that is March. Hold steady!